1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to imprinting data on documents and more particularly pertains to encoding checks with a series of properly positioned magnetic ink characters.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past both personal and business checks have been produced by printing presses and the like. Such checks, on their face, include at the least all the necessary information pertaining to the issuing bank and the drawer of the check. In addition, the check also bears a series of magnetic ink characters identifying the issuing bank and the drawer and other information for later processing of the check by banks and the Federal Reserve System. The magnetic ink characters must be located within a specific area on the check.
Printed checks as described above are generally produced in large quantities in order to lower the unit cost. This, however, restricts any run of checks to a specific bank, one drawer and account (number). Therefore, the drawer can only issue checks on one bank and one account for each series of checks printed. In order to issue checks on multiple banks or accounts it is necessary to have specific checks printed for each variation. Since business organizations operate under multiple styles and maintain various accounts at different banks they must, of necessity, stock a plurality of check forms. This is both costly and time consuming.
Checks and other similar commercial documents are required to meet and conform to certain standards. One such standard is Standard X9.27 entitled "Print Specifications for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition" and referred to as "MICR". This standard is issued by the Accredited Standards Committee on Financial Services under the procedures of the American National Standards Institute and published by the X9 Secretariat of the American Bankers Association. The specification sets forth the specific type fonts and special toners that must be used in the printing of these documents. Specification X9.13 entitled "American National Specifications for Placement and Location of MICR Printing" imposes stringent requirements for the placement of the MICR characters on checks. This specification delineates the very precise positioning of the MICR print characters relative to the edges of the check form. The specification also prohibits magnetic printing other than MICR characters within the character recognition reading area. The reading area is defined as a "Clear Band (MICR) A Band 0.625 inch high, measured from the aligning edge of the document, parallel to that edge and extending the length of the document. It is reserved for imprinting of MICR characters."
Although commercially printed check forms, which include MICR characters, are printed by machines that exhibit relatively accurate edge alignment, such printed documents nevertheless require examination. In order to insure that the imprinted images are properly aligned, testing services are available from companies which specialize in determining whether the check forms conform to the foregoing standards and specifications. Since mechanical as well as other printers are subject to alignment errors due to environmental or handling factors, frequent tests must be performed to determine compliance with specifications. The printed check forms can still fail to meet the specifications between compliance tests.
Recent technology has made available computer driven laser printers which are capable of printing special type font characters in magnetic ink using special toners. Such printing will meet the X9.27 standard. Commonly available sheet fed laser printers employ rather crude friction rollers for inserting and feeding paper through the print imaging portions of the printer. Therefore, these laser printers do not provide accurate sheet registration and therefore can not provide precise spatial registration of printed images with respect to the edges of a sheet of paper. Presently marketed laser printers produce high quality graphics without any noticeable distortion because they print using dots with extremely close spatial relationships to other dots on the same sheet. Therefore, laser printers are capable of extreme accuracy in the placement of images with respect to other images printed on the same sheet during the same operation.